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American diplomats from at least two countries recently filed internal reports in Washington, reflecting the harsh new reality that they have held overseas. The sudden withdrawal of foreign aid by the Trump administration has led to the violence and confusion that many have warned.
The vacuum that left after the US abandoned its humanitarian commitment has destabilized some of the world’s most vulnerable places, making refugee camps even more uneasy, according to State Department communications and memos obtained by ProPublica.
The assessment is not just a prediction about the future, but a detailed explanation of what has already happened, and among the first such reports from within the Trump administration, experts suspect that they are not the last. Diplomats warned in their correspondence that stopping aid could undermine efforts to combat terrorism.
In Malawi’s country in southeastern Africa, US funding cuts to the US World Food Program have resulted in a “surge in cases of crime, sexual violence and human trafficking” within large refugee camps, a US ambassador’s official told the State Department in late April. WFP, the world’s largest humanitarian food provider, is forced to reduce its funding by 40% compared to last year, and to reduce groceries at Malawi’s vast Dzaleka refugee camp by a third.
In the north, the US embassy in Kenya reported that news of cuts in funding for food programs at refugee camps led to violent demonstrations, according to Cable, which had not been reported previously since early May. During one protest, police responded with a shooting, causing four people to be injured. The refugees also died at the food distribution centre, officials wrote to Cable. Aid workers said they expect more people to get injured “as vulnerable households become increasingly desperate.”
“It’s devastating, but not surprising,” Eric Schwartz, a former State Department secretary and member of the National Security Council during the Democratic administration, told Propoblica. “It’s everything people in the national security community have predicted.”
“I struggle with seeking adjectives to properly explain the horrors this administration has come across in the world,” Schwartz added. “It keeps me up at night.”
In response to a detailed list of questions, a State Department spokesperson said in an email: “It is grossly misleading to condemn the uncertainty and violence around the world in America. We cannot reasonably expect the United States to be responsible for feeding everyone on the planet or providing medicine to all living humans.”
The spokesman also said the “overwhelming majority” of the WFP programmes that were inherited by the Trump administration, including those from Malawi and Kenya, remained active.
However, the US funds WFP every year. In 2025, the Trump administration has not approved money in either country so far, forcing organizations to significantly cut food programs.
In Kenya, for example, WFP will reduce its June ration to 28% per person per day or below 600 calories per day. The standard minimum for WFP in adults is 2,100 calories per day.
“We live in the smoke of what was delivered late 2024 or early 2025,” Landis said. On a recent visit to a facility treating malnourished children under the age of five, she said she saw a child “walking a skeleton like she had never seen in a decade.”
Since taking office, President Donald Trump has committed to restoring safety and security around the world. At the same time, his administration, in partnership with Elon Musk’s government efficiency, quickly dismantling the US International Development Agency and canceling thousands of government-funded foreign aid programs they thought were in vain. More than 80% of USAID’s operations have ended, crippling humanitarian efforts around the world to save lives.
Musk, who refused to respond to a request for comment, said Doge’s humanitarian cuts targeted fraudulent payments to the organization but did not contribute to widespread deaths. “Show me anything that’s true,” he said recently. “That’s wrong.”
For decades, the US administration run by both parties has seen humanitarian diplomacy, or “soft power,” as a cost-effective measure to stabilize areas where volatility is strategically important and provide basic needs to those who may otherwise turn to their international adversaries. Experts say these investments will help prevent local conflicts and wars in the United States “if the State Department is not fully funded, they will need to buy more ammunition.”
Food insecurity has long been closely linked to local disruptions. However, despite a promise from Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the Trump administration has terminated funding for WFPs in several countries despite promises that life-saving projects will continue amid widespread cuts in foreign aid. Almost 50% of WFP’s budget came from the US in 2024.
Since February, US officials across developing countries have issued urgent warnings predicting that the Trump administration’s decision to suddenly cut off help to a desperate population could exacerbate the humanitarian crisis and threaten the US national security interests, records show. On one cable, Middle Eastern diplomats communicated concerns that stopping aid could empower groups like the Taliban and undermine efforts to deal with terrorism, drug trade and illegal immigration. The shift also warned in other reports that the shift “will significantly stabilize the region in transition” and “will only benefit ISIS status.” “It could put us the military in the area at risk.”
The African embassies provide a similar message. “We are deeply concerned about the sudden cancellation of stabilization and humanitarian programs focused on all USAID counterterrorism in Somalia, the US Embassy in Mogadishu, Somalia, wrote in February. The role of USAID in helping the military prevent newly released territory — “purchased at the height of blood and treasures” — described returning to the hands of terrorists as “uncontroversial and irreplaceable.”
The Nigerian Embassy explained to us how the suspension order caused the lapse of surveillance to take the risk of being diverted to a group of detectives and terrorists. (The whistleblower complaint in February alleged that the computer that purchased the USAID was stolen from a health center there.) And US officials said the Kenyan government is “facing an imminent humanitarian crisis of more than 730,000 refugees,” local officials said they struggle to face the threat of major terrorists in the country, Al Shabaab, the country’s leading terrorist threat.
In early April, Jeremy Lewin, a lawyer in his late 20s and had no government experience in charge of the State Department’s Foreign Aid Office and the operating office of the USAID business, ordered the end of WFP grants in more than 12 countries. (In the protests, he later revived some of them.) A State Department spokesman said the agency was responding on Lewin’s behalf.
In Kenya, WFP expects a malnutrition crisis after rations have been cut by a standard minimum of one-quarter, Landis said. She also worries about the safety of staff traveling with police escorts already, as there is more protest and there could be further invasions of Al Shabaab in the camp.
Landis said the US will already need to board the boat to deliver regular food aid to Kenya by the end of the year. That’s not happening.
Nurses will evaluate malnourished children in April 2025 at a WFP-supported health clinic in Torukana County, Kenya. Credit: Courtesy of World Food Program/Kevin Gitonga
Recently, South Sudanese refugees in Ethiopia have asked a delegation of visiting government from the US to not cut groceries any further, according to Cable, which records their visits. Aid workers in another group in North Africa reported that they hope to run out of funds by the end of May for a programme that will combat malnutrition in 8,600 pregnant and nursing mothers.
Despite being one of the poorest countries in the world, Malawi has been a relative beacon of stability in a region that has seen many civil wars and uncertainties over the past few decades. But in early March, officials warned their Washington counterparts that the cut would be to more than $300 million in USAID, which they plan to provide to the country with aid a year.
At the time, 10 employees of a nonprofit funded by USAID recently appeared without notice at the USAID office in Lilongwe, the capital of Lilongwe, after the US freaks down. The group left without any problems and is unclear whether they were paid, but authorities reported that they expected countries around the world to face similar issues and are closely monitoring “an increased risks to the safety and security of embassy staff.” (State Department records show that former employees of another nonprofit organization in a nearby country also attacked the organization “out of despair over its unpaid”).
One hour drive from the national capital, Dozareka transformed into a refugee camp in the 1990s and is a former prison in nearby Mozambique that houses people fleeing war. In the decades that followed, it has bulged and filled with people fleeing the conflicts of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The camp, built to accommodate approximately 10,000 people, currently houses over 55,000 people.
The woman goes on a door-to-door visit to sell second-hand clothes at the dzaleka refugee camp. Credit: African Media Online/Alamy Stock
Iradukunda Devota, a refugee from Burundi, came to Malawi when she was three years old and has lived in Zareka for 23 years. She currently works for INUA Advocacy, which provides legal services and advocates on behalf of CAMP refugees. She said tensions were high amid rumors that food and other aid would be cut further. Since 2023, the Malawi government has banned refugees from living or working outside their camps, and crime and substance abuse have already risen after food cuts were cut earlier this year. “This is happening because people are hungry,” Devota told Propoblica. “They can’t rely on anywhere.”
Currently, the Malawi government is likely to close borders to refugees in response to the Muzlekha fundraising crisis and congestion, according to agency records.
Trump has stopped cleanup of Agent Orange. This puts hundreds of thousands of people at risk of addiction.
Diplomats continue to warn the Trump administration of even worse things going forward. WFP expects to suspend food aid in Dzaleka completely in July.
“WFP is anticipating violent protests,” the embassy told State Department officials.
Propublica plans to continue its results from termination of USAID, the State Department and US foreign aid. We want to hear from you. Contact reporters Brett Murphy and Anna Maria Barry Jester at +1 508-523-5195 via signal at +1 408-504-8131.
